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[Tanerian]

It is a tactic used to help.increase sales by assuming people are stupid.


It works incredibly well. Because they assume correctly. same reason some companies will fight legal Battles to be able to list sugar content in grams instead of teaspoons. Cause most Americans do not know how to convert grams or measure them. They can visualize amounts in teaspoons... grams are just some Number though.

 

[supernormal]

Chips is my favorite though. The bags come half empty and according to the "Nutrition Facts" you're supposed to share with 3 people or spread across 3 meals. WTF. I get the 20oz soda bottles because a lot of people drink some and save it for later, even I find to be a little more than enough and I'm 270lbs. But a bag of chips!? What's next? Bite size chocolate that are 2 servings?

Edit: When I say a bag of chips I'm not talking about the big ass bag you pour into a bowl for people to share. That is obviously not for one person to eat in one sitting. I'm talking about the small bags no bigger than a game case. How is that 2-3 servings? C'mon!

 

[Tanerian]

Chips is my favorite though. The bags come half empty and according to the "Nutrition Facts" you're supposed to share with 3 people or spread across 3 meals. WTF. I get the 20oz soda bottles because a lot of people drink some and save it for later, even I find to be a little more than enough and I'm 270lbs. But a bag of chips!? What's next? Bite size chocolate that are 2 servings?

Well to be fair those portion sizes assume you are eating a meal, and not just chips. Like a portion of chips with a sandwich etc.

 

[Engell]

Chips is my favorite though. The bags come half empty

what, how do they come half empty? I am pretty sure that you get the weight that is stated on the bag. Yes there is air in the bag to prevent the chips from getting crushed. but last time i checked adding air doesn't add weight.

That said i find the European system where they present the values pr. 100 gram much better and makes it much easier to compare several brands/dishes against each other in no time.

 

[mrklaw]

1 serving per pack is fine. 2 servings per pack is fine.

1.25 servings per pack is pretty bullshit. What are you supposed to do - buy four packs so you can have five servings, or just waste 0.25 servings?

 

[Lulu23]

1 serving per pack is fine. 2 servings per pack is fine.

1.25 servings per pack is pretty bullshit. What are you supposed to do - buy four packs so you can have five servings, or just waste 0.25 servings?

This, so much.
In Germany you can pretty much only buy 500g (or a kilo) of noodles. 125g per meal isn't enough for me, 250g is waaaayyy to much. So I have to get the scale out to measure exactly 167,3g so that a pack of noodles is three meals. That however, is still a bit too much for me, so I have to buy three packs just to be abled to split it into 150g portions without wasting any or overeating.
This isn't really so much the noodle producer's fault though, as everyone eats differently.

I'd be interested how much noodles you guys eat per meal if it's just them + some sauce? Weighed before cooking of course.


Also, who the hell eats half a pizza? Frozen pizzas in Germany are mostly labeled as "2 Portionen" on the back, yet no one I know eats only half a pizza, it's ridiculous.

 

[Damon Bennet]

This, so much.
In Germany you can pretty much only buy 500g (or a kilo) of noodles. 125g per meal isn't enough for me, 250g is waaaayyy to much. So I have to get the scale out to measure exactly 167,3g so that a pack of noodles is three meals. That however, is still a bit too much for me, so I have to buy three packs just to be abled to split it into 150g portions without wasting any or overeating.
This isn't really so much the noodle producer's fault though, as everyone eats differently.

I'd be interested how much noodles you guys eat per meal if it's just them + some sauce? Weighed before cooking of course.


Also, who the hell eats half a pizza? Frozen pizzas in Germany are mostly labeled as "2 Portionen" on the back, yet no one I know eats only half a pizza, it's ridiculous.

I hate that shit, but recently I felt that Pizza brands stopped doing that. But seriously, why would a serving of, for example, haribo goldbears be like 8 and a half bears? Who sits there and thinks "yeah, I'd love 8.5 goldbears". nobody, thats right.

I wish there'd be a law with nutritional information for 100g and the absolute amount. with 100g (or a liter or a kilo.) you can compare to everything else, with the absolute amount you know how much carbs you just ate with the whole pizza

 

[RoeBear]

If you think that's bad start actually weighing the food per serving. 3/4 cup of Quaker oatmeal should be 60 grams but 60 actual grams is closer to half a cup.

 

[Majanew]

Stop eating popcorn/chips? People aren't fat because of nutrition facts on packaging; they're fat because they eat bullshit and lots of it. A bag of popcorn/chips... what the fuck do you expect is going to happen when scarfing that bullshit down?

 

[Lulu23]

I wish there'd be a law with nutritional information for 100g and the absolute amount. with 100g (or a liter or a kilo.) you can compare to everything else, with the absolute amount you know how much carbs you just ate with the whole pizza

Yeah that sounds pretty much perfect. They could just put that on the back and keep whatever shitty portion sizes they want on the front to advertise if they really think it's necessary.

 

[terrisus]

I think a better question to pose would have been about "natural" or "artificial" flavorings in the ingredient lists. That would have gotten at least 5-10 pages.

Luckily for you, such a thread already exists.

Spoiler

(It's only 2 pages)

 

[Minister of the Dog]

I mean, I agree that it could be better explained, but if you're buying unhealthy snacks and then worrying about kcal and fat you're already doing it wrong.

The European per 100 g system is very intuitive, as others have mentioned.

 

[Regurgitated]

In Australia we have "Per serve" and "Per 100g" so you can always get a clear indicator.

 

[Psychotext]

One of the best ones I've seen like that is making the serving size so small that you can basically lie about what's in it using rounding. That's why per 100g should be mandatory.

Of course that's before you get into the nutritional figures that are just plain wrong. I've seen a chicken curry at a UK supermarket that claims 35g of protein per 100g. Even if it was pure chicken without sauce that would be impossible.

 

[yankeeforever2]

My favorite serving size was 3/4 of a pickle spear. I mean really, that blew my mind.

 

[Chunky]

American food labeling is so fucking weird though.

"Serving size" - the fuck is that? And it changes from item to item.

In Europe everything is given per 100 grams. Nice, logical and metric.

Yeah what's up with the cups nonsense, this isn't bloody Cinderella.

 

[No_Style]

Real talk: I actually started to eat exactly 16 Cadbury MiniEggs after reading the nutrition label's serving size of 17. It's tough but I wanted to see if I could still enjoy it at such small portions.

I eat one less because I grab 4 at a time throughout the day/evening.

 

[hitsugi]

Luckily for you, such a thread already exists.

Spoiler

(It's only 2 pages)

It was 4 pages as of the time you posted this.... you're a CT fan so I can let some things slide, but come on man D: tryin to trick me like this

 

[Dr. Feel Good]

Stop eating popcorn/chips? People aren't fat because of nutrition facts on packaging; they're fat because they eat bullshit and lots of it. A bag of popcorn/chips... what the fuck do you expect is going to happen when scarfing that bullshit down?

This applicable to all foods.

 

[terrisus]

It was 4 pages as of the time you posted this.... you're a CT fan so I can let some things slide, but come on man D: tryin to trick me like this

100 posts-per-page is the correct way to browse GAF :þ


At least you're a Final Fantasy 3(6) fan, so that makes it better <3

 

[arit]

Stop eating popcorn/chips? People aren't fat because of nutrition facts on packaging; they're fat because they eat bullshit and lots of it. A bag of popcorn/chips... what the fuck do you expect is going to happen when scarfing that bullshit down?

Pure air popped popcorn isn't that bad actually, though it does get crappy rather fast once you add butter, sugar and all the other supposedly flavour enhancing crap but it doesn't have to.

 

[You Are Viewtiful]

Chips is my favorite though. The bags come half empty and according to the "Nutrition Facts" you're supposed to share with 3 people or spread across 3 meals. WTF. I get the 20oz soda bottles because a lot of people drink some and save it for later, even I find to be a little more than enough and I'm 270lbs. But a bag of chips!? What's next? Bite size chocolate that are 2 servings?

Edit: When I say a bag of chips I'm not talking about the big ass bag you pour into a bowl for people to share. That is obviously not for one person to eat in one sitting. I'm talking about the small bags no bigger than a game case. How is that 2-3 servings? C'mon!

Not sure what chips these are. The 50g packs I buy say they are for one serving. If you're talking about the big 180g packets, then those are for definitely for 3 servings. Actually, on the back it says "Serving size: 36 chips (50g)", so that's pretty convenient.